Government debt

Greece's pandemic-battered economy will bounce back even more quickly than its government projects and could return to pre-crisis levels this year, according to Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.

The financial crisis and the pandemic have led to an increase in the public debt from about 15% of GDP in 2008 up to over 47% of GDP at the end of 2020, with a fiscal consolidation with an average annual deficit correction rate of approx. 1.5% of GDP to stabilize the debt at just over 50% of GDP by 2024, says the president of the Fiscal Council, Daniel Daianu.

Greece is "getting rid" of expensive debt, laying the groundwork for the early repayment of part of the bilateral loans from the first Memorandum of 2010 (2.7 billion euros per year) and the further repayment of IMF loans (1.9 billion euros). The signal was officially sent by the Minister of Finance Christos Staikouras and according to information, these moves will start in the near future.

European governments have spent hand over fist, despite ballooning public debt, to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from triggering economic calamity.

Now, the European Union faces calls to loosen its budget rules to allow the largesse to continue, but the topic is a sensitive one for many member states.

The foreign currency reserves of the National Bank of Romania clocked in, at the end of August 2021, at 41.616 billion euro, an increase by 6.68 pct over the level of 39.008 billion euro recorded on July 31, 2021, the central bank announced on Wednesday.

The draft budget amendment weakens the budgetary consolidation as it was announced for 2021, the Fiscal Council said on Thursday night, in a release.

The foreign reserves of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) were, at the end of July 2021, at 39.008 billion Euro, rising by 5.9% from the level of 36.831 billion Euro registered on June 30 2021, the central bank announced on Monday.

Public debt (government debt) rose at the end of the first five months of 2021 to about 527.5 billion lei, compared to 526.7 billion lei, after the first four months, according to data centralized by the Ministry of Public Finance (MFP). Relative to GDP, government debt fell to 49.7 pct of GDP at the end of May, from 49.9 pct of GDP at the end of April.

The American Credit Rating Agency S&P Global Ratings has confirmed the long-term and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Bulgaria at 'BBB/A-2', the country's rating remains stable, the Finance Ministry reported.

The current account of payment balance registered during Q1 of 2020 a deficit of 2.549 billion Euro, against 990 million Euro during the period of January - March 2020, according to the data published on Friday by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).